Algorithm for detection of illegal discounting in North Carolina Education Lottery

The lottery is a very lucrative industry. Popular fascination often focuses on the largest prizes. However, less attention has been paid to detecting unusual lottery buying behaviors. Our paper introduces a new model to detect illegal discounting in the North Carolina Education Lottery by analyzing apparent purchasing habits` using statistical analysis of out of pocket costs and ticket buying habits. Nine potential outliers are flagged and are further examined by using a specially designed stochastic model to calculate their precise possible loss in the lottery. The unusual buying patterns of the players flagged as outliers are further confirmed using a K-means clustering analysis of lottery store visiting behaviors. The K-means clustering suggests that the eight out of the nine outliers are in the same cluster. This finding is insensitive to the selection of K. All these indicators point to the conclusion that everyone in that cluster is suspicious of unlawful lottery discounting

Understanding Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Physical Exercise in Patients with Cancer

Many patients with cancer experience muscle wasting and weakness. Muscle wasting in patients with cancer can be caused by cachexia and sarcopenia. Both cachexia and sarcopenia involve inflammation and oxidative stress. However, they differ in the underlying mechanisms that lead to muscle wasting. Cachexia involves the release of inflammatory cytokines due to cancer, while sarcopenia involves inflammation due to aging. Physical exercise has shown effectiveness for improving physical function, ability, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with cancer cachexia. On the other hand, no studies have investigated the relationship between physical exercise and sarcopenia in elderly patients with cancer. Previous studies showed effectiveness for improving physical function in elderly patients with cancer. In the future, more studies are required on physical exercise in sarcopenic elderly patients with cancer

Statistical and Computational Methods for Investigating Human Genetic Variation via Sequencing Data

As sequencing technologies and techniques have matured, there is now a sizable pool of genetic information to be used in advancing our understanding of the genetic nature of complex human traits and diseases. To investigate these questions, suitable methods must be applied to obtain the necessary information from the raw sequencing data. This thesis provides computational and statistical techniques to work with Whole Exome Sequencing (WES), Targeted Sequencing (TS), and RNA Sequencing (RNA-seq) data. For WES data, we present a method to explicitly use a multiplex family design to detect and evaluate rare deletions. This method is geared towards detecting rare deletions shared among families, while also extending previous work for rare (single-nucleotide) variant association tests to rare deletions. For TS data, we present a pipeline to detect {\it de novo} deletions in the proband of case-parent trios. This method leverages the case-parent nature of the data and flexibly models characteristics of TS data, resulting in greatly reduced false discoveries while maintaining comparable sensitivity to currently available methods. Lastly, the \texttt{recount2} repository contains compressed RNA-seq data on more than 70,000 samples from across a diverse set of phenotypes. We provide a method for recovering mRNA transcript expression information from such compressed data stored in this repository

Exploring the Impact of Different Sources Credibility on App Downloading Behavior: An ELM Perspective

With the increasing of using smart phone, people began to use “App” in their daily life. While they need to download a specific type of App, the developer of the App will provide them an introductory page which describes the functionality of the App and contains statistical data. Besides, function of “your friend who has downloaded this App” is introduced to smart phone users. Therefore, many peripheral cues are listed in the page nowadays to persuade people to download. The purpose of this study is to understand whether peripheral cues in the introductory page can persuade people to download this App. In our study, we used ELM-based theory to explain the behavior of persuading. The expected contribution of this study is to understand three peripheral cues would influence App credibility which influence attitude toward downloading. This study will provide advices to App developers to promote their strategies of business

The generalized document summarizer

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-90).by Jack I-Chieh Fu.M.Eng

Transparency and Control in Platforms for Networked Markets

In this work, we analyze the worst case efficiency loss of online platform designs under a networked Cournot competition model. Inspired by some of the largest platforms today, the platform designs considered tradeoffs between transparency and control, namely, (i) open access, (ii) controlled allocation and (iii) discriminatory access. Our results show that open access designs incentivize increased production towards perfectly competitive levels and limit efficiency loss, while controlled allocation designs lead to producer-platform incentive misalignment, resulting in low participation and unbounded efficiency loss. We also show that discriminatory access designs seek a balance between transparency and control, and achieve the best of both worlds, maintaining high participation rates while limiting efficiency loss. We also study a model of consumer search cost which further distinguishes between the three designs

Robust optimization in simulation: Taguchi and response surface methodology

Optimization of simulated systems is tackled by many methods, but most methods assume known environments. This article, however, develops a `robust' methodology for uncertain environments. This methodology uses Taguchi's view of the uncertain world, but replaces his statistical techniques by Response Surface Methodology (RSM). George Box originated RSM, and Douglas Montgomery recently extended RSM to robust optimization of real (non-simulated) systems. We combine Taguchi's view with RSM for simulated systems. We illustrate the resulting methodology through classic Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) inventory models, which demonstrate that robust optimization may require order quantities that differ from the classic EOQ

Acute effects of a multinutrient supplement on performance, rate of perceived exertion and markers of catabolism in young resistance trainers practitioners

The ingestion of a multi-nutrient containing proteins, carbohydrate and creatine has been shown to enhance acute and chronic responses to resistance training, attenuating fatigue and markers of catabolism training after resistance training workouts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of a commercially available multinutrient supplement on neuromuscular fatigue, performance, perception of effort and salivary markers of catabolism, during a bout of resistance circuit training session

Cultural modulation of face and gaze scanning in young children

Previous research has demonstrated that the way human adults look at others’ faces is modulated by their cultural background, but very little is known about how such a culture-specific pattern of face gaze develops. The current study investigated the role of cultural background on the development of face scanning in young children between the ages of 1 and 7 years, and its modulation by the eye gaze direction of the face. British and Japanese participants’ eye movements were recorded while they observed faces moving their eyes towards or away from the participants. British children fixated more on the mouth whereas Japanese children fixated more on the eyes, replicating the results with adult participants. No cultural differences were observed in the differential responses to direct and averted gaze. The results suggest that different patterns of face scanning exist between different cultures from the first years of life, but differential scanning of direct and averted gaze associated with different cultural norms develop later in life

Author Correction: Short Amylin Receptor Antagonist Peptides Improve Memory Deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47255-9, published online 29 July 2019 The original Article contained an error in Figure 1A where the control trace for both the HEK-AMY3 and HEKWT cells was duplicated... The original Article has been corrected